My Mom Has Cancer

I heard today that MCA from the Beastie Boys has been cleared of his cancer.  He’s been under a regimen that included Chinese medicinal and herbal remedies as well as a vegan diet.  Of course, in trying to be the optimist about my mom’s situation, I wonder how this could help her if at all.  The frustrating part about medicine is that even with as many advances as we have, there are still so many things we can’t do. (more…)

I have a friend who’s an author that I haven’t actually spoken to in years. We built a great website and cultural blog back in 1999 that’s still very popular today.  Every year, I usually reach out and wish her a happy birthday through whatever social site is popular at the time. This year, it was twitter. After sending her happy birthday wishes, I noticed on her timeline, her refusal to mention the C word.  I read a little more and found that her mother was dealing with cancer as well.  I thought to myself how sad that was because as long as I’ve known her, she’s been able to make people laugh at her own misfortunes and observations of life and laugh right along with them.  There was something about this though, that didn’t seem to be something she could laugh at. Because I was now going through a similar situation with my mom, I really wanted to reach out and talk to her. We’re both about the same age, we worked together through a very rewarding and stressful project and we’re both now dealing with our mothers having cancer that we thought was all gone.

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OK, it’s Christmas and I got home at 2 in the morning.  I got a little sleep before waking up to eat and spend some time with my family. I was in the den and saw all of my mom’s paperwork from the doctor. I haven’t read it all, but I saw a page of handwritten notes.  I was reading down and maybe got to like the 8^th line and read “you are going to die.”  I didn’t know what to think at that moment.  It felt more like this should be part of the script for House. I understand being honest with your patients, but when you put it in writing like this, it makes everything seem so hopeless.  Everything about my life has revolved around hope, faith, and perseverance.  There’s a part of me that wants to meet this doctor and show him what I think of his notes. I know that doesn’t change things and what he said is true.  She is going to die.  We all are.  I don’t fear that statement so much.  It’s all about how you spend your time while you’re here.  And I just think she’s still got more life in her than can be measured. I’m gonna go enjoy some breakfast with her now.

So, I’m supposed to be celebrating my birthday this weekend, but it turns out that this year’s not like every other.  My father called asking what I was doing and if I could come home.  He was strongly urging that I needed to be there because my mom needed to talk to my brother and I.  I already knew she was dealing with something because of the pain she’s been dealing with, which for my mom, isn’t normal.  Of course, the fact that she had been through breast cancer just a couple of years before also krept in my mind. I knew it could come back in some people, but it appeared that my mom was in the clear. Still, I knew it could be serious if this was the case.

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